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Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo has had a distinguished career both in national politics and in the media.
His main political achievements included being appointed Secretary of State for Employment, and Secretary of State for Defence. After his 1997 electoral defeat, Michael returned to the oil company Kerr McGee as an adviser. He was re-elected to Parliament in a by-election in Kensington and Chelsea in 1999 and was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2000 to 2001. Following the Conservatives election defeat in…
Michael Portillo has had a distinguished career both in national politics and in the media.
His main political achievements included being appointed Secretary of State for Employment, and Secretary of State for Defence. After his 1997 electoral defeat, Michael returned to the oil company Kerr McGee as an adviser. He was re-elected to Parliament in a by-election in Kensington and Chelsea in 1999 and was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2000 to 2001. Following the Conservatives election defeat in 2001, Michael unsuccessfully contested the leadership of the party.
Michael has made a series of acclaimed television programmes including Richard Wagner's Ring, Portillo in Euroland, Elizabeth I, When Michael Portillo Became A Single Mum, Portillo Goes Wild in Spain and The Science of Killing. He is a regular presenter of the weekly political discussion programme This Week on BBC1.
In 2008 he chaired the judges of the Man Booker prize. Michael is a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons in the former Yugoslavia, and was a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems from 2002 to 2006. He is also President of DebRA, the national charity working on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa, and was Chairman of the British-Spanish Tertulias (an annual high level conference) from 2004 to 2008.
